Years Later

Beatrice, Max, and Aven were walking back down from Heaven, happy that they got to visit Reginald and the rest of the Hawthornes again. They laughed and told jokes, almost pushing Aven down the steps to Heaven. Beatrice paused and looked at some girl perched at the edge of Heaven bumbling around like an idiot.

“Do you two see that too?” she asked, pointing to the girl.

“There are some real weirdos in Heaven.” Max said.

“She looks awfully thin.” Aven commented. 

Indeed, Beatrice thought the girl was almost a walking skeleton with how little there was of her. Without warning, the girl spread her arms like she was a bird and took a gigantic swan dive off of the clouds of Heaven. All three of them cried out and rushed to Heaven’s edge, watching as the girl plummeted down the Afterlife at terminal velocity.

“I’m going to go get her.” Beatrice said, preparing to jump. She felt some kind of connection to the girl that she couldn’t explain. Max grabbed her arm.

“Let’s take the elevator.” she suggested.

*   *   *   *   *

Hell didn't usually get visitors, but exceptions can be made when people jump down from Heaven. Aven was scared of all the damned people walking around, but Max and Beatrice’s mean glares kept them back. Normally they would’ve had to fill out some paperwork to get down there, but it was an emergency, so they couldn’t wait months for paperwork to process.

“I think I see her.” Max said, pointing into the distance. Something was sprawled out across the ground, and none of them thought it looked particularly human in all honesty. More like a mass of skin, bones, and hair, but mostly bones, arranged in a humanoid way. They walked over to her and Beatrice nudged her with the heel of her shoes.

“Hey,” she poked. “Get up.” The girl didn’t respond.

“Can people die twice?” Max wondered out loud.

“Should we take her back to Lucas?” Aven asked.

“Hands off my fresh meat!” yelled a voice. 

Before them appeared what looked like a devil looking down on them, but her attempt to be menacing was ruined by the rainbow hoodie. Her hair was flowy and purple and her curvy figure descended down, carried by her large red wings. Beatrice felt her heart skip a beat. She was admittedly so beautiful, not that she was about to let her walk all over her though.

“What makes her yours?” Beatrice asked with an attitude.

“Because I’m in charge of this place!” she said proudly. “I’m Lisha, the ruler of Hell!” Nobody said anything.

“That’s cool,” Beatrice said. “We’re taking this girl though.”

“No way!” Lisha huffed. “I’ve got a job to do for people who come down here! Actually… where did you three come from? I didn’t get any notice for any visitors.”

“We came to get her.” she said, pointing at the girl on the ground.

“Don’t try that on me! I know what I'm doing down here.”

“Then stop being a bitch and let us leave.” Beatrice shot. “We don’t belong here.”

“Over my dead body!”

Beatrice then suddenly leaped into action and tackled Lisha, taking her to the ground and wrestling her to submission. To Max and Aven’s perspectives it looked like the equivalent of a cartoon dust cloud battle. Finally, Lisha was pounding the ground with her fist as Beatrice held her in a half-nelson.

“Can we leave now?” she asked, tightening her hold.

“Uncle! Uncle!” Lisha choked, her eyes nearly popping out of her head. Beatrice let her go, got up, and dusted off her clothes. She felt something that she hadn’t felt about another person before; it was a strange sensation in her chest.

“Cross ‘wrestle a demon’ off your bucket list.” Max laughed.

“I was going easy on her.” Beatrice smiled.

“I want my rematch!” Lisha demanded.

“Take this then.” she said, taking a pen out and writing a phone number on Lisha’s arm without warning. “Call anytime and I’ll march right back down to Hell and wrestle the devil again.”

“You bet I will!” she laughed. “You’ll be sorry next time!”

“Yeah, I’m sure I will be.” she smirked, taking the girl away on her shoulders with the help of Max. They took a ride back up to the Afterlife to present the girl to Lucas.

*   *   *   *   *

Beatrice was lounging around the house that her, Max, and Aven all shared in The Afterlife together. When she wasn’t working, she was laying around, and she only worked on special occasions. She was a boss. That’s what she had reps below her for. And when she wasn’t modeling, there she was, at home laying down. Though occasionally she went to work and laid down in her office.

All of a sudden, her phone rang on the side table. Hardly anyone called unless it was her manager, Max, Aven, or her family. Max and Aven were at work like they were supposed to be, her manager knew better than to call her on days off, and her family only called her on special occasions or just weekends usually. So whoever it was could suck it up and just have to miss her for now. She heard her phone tell her they left a voicemail though, which interested her.

“Fluffy,” she said. “Get that voicemail for me.”

“Hissss.”

“Fine, I’ll feed you a little extra lunch.”

“Hissssss.”

“The little crescent rolls you like.”

“Hissss,” the snake said, satisfied. He slithered over to the phone and navigated it to play the voicemail for her.

“Hey uh, this is Lisha, you know, The Devil. I liked our- Iris, stop! The trick was funny the first time, but duplicating yourself gets old! Sorry, listen, I want to invite you to Hell to have a party with my sister in two day’s time, and I, just uh, come on down and- Iris stop!! Listen, I want to see you again and I hope I can and- OW!!”

After that, the voicemail abruptly stopped, much to Beatrice’s confusion. It must’ve been that lady she met the other day when she scraped her great-great-niece off the ground. She was asking her to go to a party though?

“What do you think, Fluffy?” she asked, sitting up. “Only family invites me to parties, and Max and Aven invite me by default because I live here.”

“Hissssss.”

“Ok, jeez. Fine, I’ll think about it.”

“Hissss,” Fully said, satisfied.

“You act like I have no friends.”

“Hiss.”

“Say that again, you spineless noodle,” she growled. “I do have more than three friends.”

“Hissss.” If snakes could shrug, he would’ve.

“Say it again, I dare you.”

“Hissss.”

“That’s it!”

Beatrice bolted up and went to chase Fluffy, but she moved way too quickly. Everything around her started swirling, and her vision was fading in and out of blackness. She lost balance and fell to the ground, hitting her head on the coffee table on the way down and losing consciousness completely.

*   *   *   *   *

“Are you sure you’re alright doing this?” Aven asked. “You took a pretty nasty fall when you were home alone a couple days ago.”

“Yeah, I got this,” she said confidently. “It’s not often I get invited to parties.”

“When was the last time you got invited to a party that wasn’t mine or Reginald’s?” asked Max with a chuckle.

“Um… remember that wild party 

“The one where you got drunk and swung from a chandelier and broke it?”

“Yeah, that’s the one.”

“Wait, wasn’t that the same one when Max got drunk and ran down the street with you on her shoulders like a toddler?” Aven asked. Max laughed again.

“That wasn’t the only thing we did that night drunk-”

“Ahem,” Beatrice coughed with a red face. “I think we’re at her… castle?”

The three of them stood at the doors to the largest building in Hell: a giant castle that could be seen from anywhere in the realm. It was grandiose, made entirely of stone bricks and dark roofing tiles. Although, some sections also looked dilapidated and collapsed in on itself, like it had seen better days for sure.

“Wow, is this what castles look like in person?” Aven asked. Both her and Max looked to Beatrice, figuring if any one of them had seen one before, it was her. Beatrice shrugged though.

“I dunno. We didn’t have castles in America, now did we?”

“You never went overseas to see one in Europe or something?” Max asked.

“Does it look like I’d make it overseas?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

Max knocked on the giant doors and waited. They heard it echo throughout the castle as very loud shouting started sounding out. Everyone but Beatrice backed away when they heard a bunch of thumping and laughter.

“I wanna say hi to your girlfriend first, Lisha!”

“She’s just a friend, Iris, not a girlfriend!”

“A friend you wrestled with on the ground!”

“Stop saying that!”

“I’m already there!”

Suddenly, the great doors were thrusted open and a madly laughing angel with two golden wings burst out, doing twirls in the air. Following her was the woman they’d met before, Lisha, barreling forward and trying to stop. She tripped through, and flew forward and right onto Beatrice. Max and Aven ran to their friend’s side while the angel continued to wildly giggle.

“Lisha, keep your hands off her until at least after dinner,” the angel teased.

“Iris, shush,” Lisha blushed, getting off of Beatrice and trying to help her up. “I’m sorry about that. My sister, Iris, is… a bit of a prankster.”

“You just need to learn to have some fun,” laughed Iris, swooping down. She grabbed Max from under the arms and flew into the castle.

“Max!” Aven shouted, chasing after her.

“I’ve got some odd family too,” smiled Beatrice. “So maybe I could get used to yours too. Speaking of… Fluffy, where are you?!”

By command, Fluffy slithered to Beatrice and crawled up her body.

“Where were you while I was being crushed?” she asked angrily.

“Hisssss.”

“I don’t appreciate the sas, little man.”

“You can understand him?” Lisha asked.

“Oh yeah, I can. Maybe I can teach you how to speak snake too if I stick around long enough,” she offered.

“I, um… well, I think-”

“After dinner then?”

“That sounds great!”

Beatrice and Lisha walked into the castle, and chatted on the way to the dinner hall. Beatrice let Lisha hold Fluffy and get used to him. Lisha told her stories about her life with her sister in Heaven, and how this castle was really just their home away from home in Hell they went to when they had business down there. Usually though, they lived in Heaven together on weekends, then one of them had to stay in Hell while one was in Heaven to manage the dead in both realms. They switched places every week so it didn’t get too stale.

*   *   *   *   *

When Aven woke up, she was alone in the living room on a couch. Groggily, she got up and looked around. She remembered that dinner was pretty great, with more different kinds of foods than she had ever seen before. Aven still felt stuffed from all the food she ate; she very much overate. Although, she was the only one who didn’t partake in any of the wine and got brain-dead drunk. She lost track of everyone when it became too late and she got too tired.

“Oh, good morning,” she smiled at Fluffy, who struggled up her leg. He had also overeaten, and it showed in the way he struggled to slither.

“I’ll help you,” she said sympathetically. Aven lifted Fluffy up and laid him around her neck like Beatrice let her do sometimes. “Wanna go find Bea?”

“Hissss.”

“Ok, well the castle can’t be that big. I’m sure we’ll find her eventually.”

It turns out the castle could be that big, and they were walking around for hours before they found anyone. Aven and Fluffy were walking aimlessly down a hallway when a door opened. Out of it, Max and Iris stumbled, both with massive headaches but still smiling.

“Great night,” said Max.

“Agreed,” nodded Iris.

“Where’s your sister and Bea?” Aven asked, holding up the snake. “Fluffy’s worried about her.”

“She should be just over here,” Iris yawned, moving over and opening the door across from theirs.

Inside, everyone saw Lisha and Beatrice cuddled up in bed, sweetly holding each other. Everyone couldn’t help but smile. Aven set Fluffy down, who slithered down from her arm and onto the bed, wrapping around the couple. Iris shut the door again.

“I think I’ll let them sleep in,” she said. “You two ought to get going though. I’ve got Heaven duty today, so I can drop you two off on my way up.”

“How long is that going to take?” Aven asked. “I’ve got this fitness class to get to at 10am, and-”

Iris put her hands on Max’s and Aven’s shoulders and closed her eyes. In a flash, the three of them were gone from the castle and on the doorstep of their house. Aven was a bit jarred by it, but it didn’t seem to phase Max.

“That was an amazing party, by the way,” the angel said. “I hope we can meet again real soon!”

With that, she teleported away again, leaving them. Max giggled profusely while Aven just smiled.

“What’re you so happy about?” she asked.

“Because,” Max said, slightly lifting her shirt and revealing a phone number written in permanent marker on her abs. “I got an angel’s digits.”

“Of course you’re excited about that,” Aven giggled, rolling her eyes as she and Max went inside to get ready for the day.